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It Took DEF CON Hackers Minutes to Pwn These US Voting Machines

posted by martyb on Sunday July 30 2017, @07:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the a-few-votes-here,-a-few-votes-there... dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

DEF CON After the debacle of the 2000 presidential election count, the US invested heavily in electronic voting systems – but not, it seems, the security to protect them.

This year at the DEF CON hacking conference in Las Vegas, 30 computer-powered ballot boxes used in American elections were set up in a simulated national White House race – and hackers got to work physically breaking the gear open to find out what was hidden inside.

In less than 90 minutes, the first cracks in the systems' defenses started appearing, revealing an embarrassing low level of security. Then one was hacked wirelessly.

"Without question, our voting systems are weak and susceptible. Thanks to the contributions of the hacker community today, we've uncovered even more about exactly how," said Jake Braun, who sold DEF CON founder Jeff Moss on the idea earlier this year.

"The scary thing is we also know that our foreign adversaries – including Russia, North Korea, Iran – possess the capabilities to hack them too, in the process undermining principles of democracy and threatening our national security."

As long as mission-critical systems like cable TV are secure, civilization will be safe.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @08:03PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @08:03PM (#546799)

    As long as mission-critical systems like cable TV are secure, civilization will be safe.

    Like it's not trivially easy to steal cable, or these days to steal cable internet and then to pirate all the content.

    Shame about the BREAD though. Where's my Basic Income?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @08:14PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @08:14PM (#546804)

      Don't try stealing from the grocery, Jean Valjean.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @08:20PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @08:20PM (#546808)

        But I steal bread to give to the food bank!

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @02:45AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @02:45AM (#546948)

          Screw that! Gimme free shit! Gimme free silver candlesticks so I can become a 1%er capitalist mogul!

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @09:08PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @09:08PM (#546821)

      The peasants have no bread? Let them eat cable.

      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @09:42PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @09:42PM (#546841)

        If only.

        At the age of fifteen, I lived in a dusty, scorched town at the edge of a desert. I was the son of a peasant, whose family for centuries had worked the cable crop for the Richards family. Our town was really just a farm, and to call it that lends it an undeserved glamor. Huts upon red dirt; there is little else to imagine. The cable crop, a hardy, stringy, tasteless vegetable, used for everything from bulk food to bed springs, straggled meanly over the parched ground. It did not grow high and its unattractive, pitted fruits burst with a sound like gunfire to release pale seeds in yellow jelly and fill the air with the odor of putrescence. The grand house of Sefton Richards, a stern, northern man, whose reclusiveness was supposed to shelter insanity, squatted against the horizon, far from our own humble dwellings. Every year, ten of us were summoned to the Great House and ordered to whitewash it. Through the windows, we could see that it had very little furniture inside.
        We lived in a cruel, bitter, petty country and it was inevitable that we shared many of these characteristics. Only when I escaped did I learn to dislike it. Then, I existed in a mindless, innocent way, ignorant of the world outside our narrow territories and content to stretch and pound the cable fiber with the rest of my kind.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @09:47PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @09:47PM (#546843)

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeganism [wikipedia.org]
      http://nypost.com/2011/10/31/brooklyn-hipsters-go-dumpster-diving-for-dinner/ [nypost.com]
      https://www.vice.com/sv/article/avaev5/i-ate-rubbish-for-a-week-to-understand-the-rise-and-fall-of-dumpster-diving [vice.com]

  • (Score: 2) by Justin Case on Sunday July 30 2017, @08:04PM (3 children)

    by Justin Case (4239) on Sunday July 30 2017, @08:04PM (#546800) Journal

    There is no legitimate use case for "electronic voting systems".

    Which leads one to wonder: what was the real reason for the rush to deploy?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @09:02PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @09:02PM (#546818)

      Which leads one to wonder: what was the real reason for the rush to deploy?

      Let's see ... a sweetheart deal for the manufacturer because of their political contributions ... and the need to announce the winner as soon as possible so they can claim victory over their vanquished opponents. Optics are critical in today's political climate.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by kaszz on Sunday July 30 2017, @11:17PM

      by kaszz (4211) on Sunday July 30 2017, @11:17PM (#546884) Journal

      The real reason is to legitimize voting fraud. Why else have known faulty machines as official vote counters?
      Every security expert worth their title knows electronic voting for official office is a bad idea, so..

    • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Sunday July 30 2017, @11:18PM

      by hendrikboom (1125) on Sunday July 30 2017, @11:18PM (#546885) Homepage Journal

      The purpose of electronic voting machines is to automate election fraud.

  • (Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Sunday July 30 2017, @09:08PM (5 children)

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Sunday July 30 2017, @09:08PM (#546823)

    When we the people of the United States of America are given a choice between voting for Evil Alien A or Evil Alien B, does it really matter?

    "Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!"

    Meanwhile on Fox News "Turmmp! Russer! Trummpr! Russher! TRuuumph! Moar Russaar! Derrr"

    • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday July 30 2017, @10:58PM (4 children)

      by kaszz (4211) on Sunday July 30 2017, @10:58PM (#546873) Journal

      Media presented it as a A/B choice. But that is not the reality:

      Republican: Donald Trump
      Democrat: Hillary Clinton
      Libertarian: Gary Johnson
      Green Party: Jill Stein
      Independents: Evan McMullin
      Constitution Party: Darrell Castle

      Within the larger parties numerous candidates withdrew.

      So there IS choice. But people don't get aware of it because media present it otherwise. And the constitution also worsen it by winner-takes-it-all rules. Whack media and the playing field becomes more even.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @01:05AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @01:05AM (#546907)

        Clarification: winner-take-all is not in the US Constitution. The electoral college does encourage it, but the constitution does not even require voting (appointment by state government used to be common when thr US was young).

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @06:34AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @06:34AM (#547003)

        There were 31 candidates on ballots, and 206 qualified write-in candidates. [thegreenpapers.com]

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @03:31PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @03:31PM (#547195)

        The trouble is that first past the post voting penalizes those that vote for the 'right' candidate by taking a vote from the 'better' candidate that won't push them past the 'worse' candidate. The so-called spoiler effect.

        The answer is to offer something like instant run-off voting, but since that penalizes the two parties in power, how to you institute it?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @03:58PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @03:58PM (#547206)

          The answer is to offer something like instant run-off voting, but since that penalizes the two parties in power, how do you institute it?

          The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @09:32PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @09:32PM (#546835)

    ...if North Koreans are physically breaking open your voting machines.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @09:50PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @09:50PM (#546847)

      I'm more worried about the phony tech guy, the corrupt politician, or whatever likely method is used to falsify voting records.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @01:20AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @01:20AM (#546912)

      In upstate NY (far from NY City), I vote by pencil, blackening spots on a heavy paper ballot. The ballot is scanned by something that looks a bit like an old fax machine, and then saved should a recount be called for. Not sure how the scanned image is counted, anyone know?

      I suppose the scanner software could be hacked? Seems unlikely, since representatives of all parties (at least GOP and Dem) are there to verify the operation of the machine before the polls open.

      • (Score: 5, Funny) by MostCynical on Monday July 31 2017, @02:24AM

        by MostCynical (2589) on Monday July 31 2017, @02:24AM (#546941) Journal

        "verify the operation of the machine before the polls open."

        so, the machine shows one count for one vote for each candidate, or whatever 'test' the manufacturer proscribes.

        How does it do, once there are several thousand votes? How does it go about 'checking' itself, part-way through, and at the end of, voting?

        Think that 'pre-election test' was enough to prove anything? VW, Audi, Mercedes, etc. could all help you learn about getting machines to pass 'tests'...

        --
        "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

      • (Score: 2) by fritsd on Monday July 31 2017, @04:32PM

        by fritsd (4586) on Monday July 31 2017, @04:32PM (#547233) Journal

        I suppose the scanner software could be hacked? Seems unlikely, since common, non-expert representatives of all parties (at least GOP and Dem) are there to verify the operation of the machine after it was stored for 4 years in a padlocked shed that only 60 people have official access to.

        FTFY :-)

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @11:33AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @11:33AM (#547096)

    But you only need "voting" in "democracies".

    And I won't even mention the one party system where you get to pick your favorite color between red and blue...

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